September 24, 2017

Every morning I eat oat flakes for breakfast, and these oat flakes is served in various ceramic bowls. I have two types of breakfast bowls. For working days I use a more heavy type of bowl, and for the week-end morning I used a thinner bowl type. Anyway, when you use ceramic or china day in and day out, you will from time to time break something, well at least I do !

This Summer one of my working days breakfast bowls broke, so therefore I went shopping for a new breakfast bowl. It actually took some time to find a new "right" breakfast bowl. I located the right bowl during a trip to Odense at Dina Vejling.

My new breakfast bowl is of cause in my favourite colour of green, and is made by Hanne Bertelsen. Besides from the breakfast bowl I found a green vase in skewed shape made by Karina Skibby, which I could not live without, and I got it to ½ price :-)

September 21, 2017

I have been baking this chocolate cake with a liquorice cream layer using a recipe from baking recipe magazine coming together with the weekly magazine "Femina". I have made no change to this recipe.

When I finally had put the cake together, I noticed a jam of blackcurrant standing untouched together on the kitchen table !!! So it turned out, that I had forgot to use the blackcurrant jam, so therefore I have been serving blackcurrant jam as a sauce together with the cake.

I find this cake to be very, very rich in chocolate taste, so this is cake for the chocolate lovers being full of dark chocolate together with plenty of butter. The liquorice taste is not very dominating in the final cake. Perhaps replacing the brown sugar with dark muscovado sugar with give more of a liquorice twist to the cake ?

Chocolate cake with liquorice cream layer:

Cake buns:

200 g dark chocolate

150 g butter - soft

200 g brown sugar

5 eggs - divided into egg white and egg yolk

100 g (cake) wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

5 tablespoon blackcurrant jam

Liquorice cream layer:

2½ dl dairy whipping cream, 35-40% fat

50 g icing sugar

2 tablespoon liquorice syrup

Chocolate glazing:

200 g dark chocolate

100 g butter

1 tablespoon liquorice syrup

Heat up the oven to 180'C.

Melt the chocolate for the buns together in water bath. Let the chocolate slightly cool down.

Meanwhile the butter and brown sugar into foam texture.

Add the one egg yolk at the time into the butter-sugar mass, whip in the each egg yolk, before the next egg yolk is added.

September 19, 2017

Last Saturday I went for the first time ever to a G&T Festival at Serridslevgård together with my two good friends from Horsens. It was a outdoor festival, which always can be a challenge in Denmark. However, we were lucky, it did not rain. The surroundings is great for such an event with plenty of space and good sound conditions.

The very first booth we visited at the festival was the tonic stand, where we tasted various types of tonics. It was a very good start, as we later on at the various gin stand had a better understanding, if the select for tasted gin was the right choice for our individual taste buds. One tonic can lift the combination of G&T up to the sky, while another tonic can lower the G&T combination to a bad experience.

Afterwards we went from gin booth to the next gin booth tasting the various gins. At the first gin booth we started out getting one small of gin for each of us three persons, we soon realized, that if we wanted to taste gins from more booths, when we needed to minise the gin intake at each booth. Therefore we soon started to share one small of gin for three persons.

As most of the gin booths we were either talking to the persons, which were producing the gins or had good relation with the gin, which they represented. It was great, as we got a great understanding of the gin, which we tasting. And yes, if you did not like the gin, when it was easy to empty the gin into the grass.

At all the gin booths there were a good filling up of the glasses with gin, so you had to ask for less gin into the glass ! After some time you taste buds are actually saturated with gin flavour, so you feel less for tasting more gin.

Besides from the various gin booths, there was also a gin bar, where 11 different types of gin tonics could be brought.

I did not buy any gin, as my bar is already full of various gins. I went away with two new tonics as well as some quinine, so I can make my own tonic.

All in all it was great experience, so I good easily imaging me turning up next year.

September 16, 2017

On the annual rowing Summer vacation (rowing along the East coast of Jutland) the weather was a mixture of good rowing weather and bad rowing weather. On the days with bad rowing weather we spend some time in Ebeltoft doing both sightseeing as well as shopping.

I went home with some candies from Mols Bolsjer, some glass flowers for my garden, a new replacement tea cup from Potteriet, a green glass vase from Pust for the windows of my bedroom.

I found a recipe in weekly magasin some time ago, which I twisted by adding in a small amount of raspberry extract in the icing part of the cake to boost the raspberry taste (using this raspberry cutting recipe as inspiration).

Hindbærsnitte (Raspberry Cutting):8-10 pieces

200 g (cake) flour

50 g almond flour

25 g icing sugar

1/4 teaspoon vanilla sugar

150 g cold butter - cut into small pieces

1 egg yolk

250 g raspberry

125 g sugar

1 tablespoon lime juice

zest of ½ lime

2-3 g pectin - optional

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon raspberry extract

icing sugar

freeze-dried raspberries

Start by making the raspberry jam. Heat up the raspberries, sugar, lime juice and lime zest to the boiling point.

Let the jam simmer for 8-10 minutes to reduce the water content, and make the texture more thick. Addition of pectin can also increase the viscosity, so the jam will not float too much during the baking process.

Cool down the jam in a container. The jam can easily be made the day in advance.

September 10, 2017

Yesterday afternoon it was time again for the annual cake regatta at the rowing club. The winner of the previous year´s cake regatta select the time as well as theme for the year´s cake year. And the theme for this year was hindbærsnitter (raspberry cuttings).

We were a small selected group of three persons, who joined this year´s cake regatta. We started by rowing a tour of 15 km on the Fjord of Vejle, which yesterday as unusual silent/still. After the return to the club is was time for some serious cake tasting. We were tasting the cake blinded by tea towels followed by voting on the preferred cake by taste only. After we had given out vote we would allowed at actually see the various cakes visually.

My hindbærsnitter (raspberry cuttings) got the majority of the votes, so I can now call myself the 2017 champion baker of Vejle Rowing Club. On top of this I got a trophy in form of sleeve protectors and the responsibility of arranging the cake regatta in 2018 and selecting the cake theme. I will share the winning recipe with you in the near future.